A License to Discriminate — There are 17 states where it is legal for same-sex couples to marry, and there is no evidence that the accelerating progress toward equality has compromised anyone’s freedom to worship or hold religious beliefs. Unfortunately, that has not stopped religious and social conservatives from pressing lawmakers in various states to enact noxious measures to give businesses and individuals the broad right to deny services to same-sex couples in the name of protecting religious liberty.

Senators on SB1062: “We made a mistake” — A trio of Arizona state senators urged Gov. Jan Brewer to veto a controversial “religious freedom” bill on Monday, just days after all three cast votes in favor of the proposal that opponents say will legalize discrimination. These unAmerican conservative jerks don’t even have the balls to stand proudly for the same bigoted hate they were happy to vote in for relative anonymity a week ago? Poor widdle babies, facing consequences for their profoundly destructive actions. Such accountability rarely happens to conservatives, of course. I suppose this is progress, but it would have been a lot more progress not to embrace such a hideously immoral piece of GOP vote pandering in the first place.

Arizona Confronting Awkward Realization That Gay People Have Money, Buy Stuff — Acknowledging that her vote for the anti-gay law might have been calamitous for the state’s economy, Ms. Foyler placed the blame for it squarely on the shoulders of one group: the gays themselves. “How was I supposed to know what gay people do with their money, etc., when I don’t personally know any gay people?” she asked. “I’m sorry, but it was up to the gays to tell us.” (Via Lisa Costello.)

[publishing] METAtropolis: Greenspace nominated for an Audie

I am pleased to note that METAtropolis: Greenspace has been nominated for an Audie for best original work. That is the audiobook industry’s highest award, comparable to the Hugo or the Oscar.

This is the category that METAtropolis: Cascadia won several years ago. Edited by me and Ken Scholes, our fabulous stable of writers includes Elizabeth Bear, Mary Robinette Kowal, Seanan McGuire, Ken Scholes, Karl Schroeder and myself.

[sale] “Rock of Ages” to Year’s Best Science Fiction 31

I am pleased to announce that this past week editor Gardner Dozois acquired my novella “Rock of Ages” for Year’s Best Science Fiction 31. The piece original appeared in METAtropolis: Green Space, published by Audible.com and edited by Ken Scholes and myself. It follows on my stories in the first two volumes, and intertwines with Ken’s stories from this volume and the previous one. Oddly, this should be the first print appearance for the novella, as original publication was in an audio format.

As this is one of the last two stories I wrote before chemo and cancer shut down my writing brain for good, I feel an extra bit of pride here. (The other is my collaborative novella with Seanan McGuire, “Hook Agonistes”, in case you’re wondering.)

DNA Double Take — [S]cientists are finding that it’s quite common for an individual to have multiple genomes. Some people, for example, have groups of cells with mutations that are not found in the rest of the body. Some have genomes that came from other people. (Thanks to my Dad.)

If you want to get fit, get fidgeting — Forget dieting, weight-lifting and all those work-outs – try fidgeting instead. Because, according to new research from the US Mayo Clinic, tiny exercise performed often enough can have as big an effect as rigorous exercise done less frequently. (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

Why Debunk Climate Change Deniers? — [S]adly, the people who deny the reality around them have a very large megaphone, and in some cases have a lot of motivation to use it. Money, power, riling up the electorate, or, perhaps worst of all, pure zealotry. Nothing is as impenetrable as an armor wrought from fervent ideology. Welcome to conservative America, where the facts are only relevant if they’re on the Republican side.

Antarctica Sea Ice Hitting Record Highs — The record sea ice doesn’t contradict global warming. Because Antarctic sea ice encircles a frozen continent, the factors controlling its growth are complex, and include winds, warming air temperatures and even the ozone hole. Wind plays a greater role the size of the ice pack than air temperature or ocean currents.

Oklahoma National Guard reverses stance on same-sex couple benefits — Oklahoma now joins Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana as the only states that have publicly said they will limit how and where such couples can register for benefits, despite a recent Pentagon directive. It’s only the law, and military policy: little things which conservatives care passionately about under most non-gay circumstances. Are you still proud of your Republican party?

[links] Link salad is back in Portland

Launch Pad is on sale — The anthology benefits the Launch Pad workshop, and includes a reprint story from me.

Facebook and Twitter Are Converging — The two largest social networks are becoming more similar, as they borrow each other’s features, and search for profit. The social media singularity is on the event horizon. What rough beast slouches towards the NASDAQ?

The obesity era — ‘The previous belief of many lay people and health professionals that obesity is simply the result of a lack of willpower and an inability to discipline eating habits is no longer defensible.’. (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

Fischer: It Is ‘Ignorant, Ignorant, Ignorant’ To Think Human Behavior Can Impact The Climate — it is dumb, dumb, dumb; it is stupid, stupid, stupid; it is ignorant, ignorant, ignorant to think that there is anything that man can do to control the climate through human behavior.” If you want to do something about the climate,” Fischer said, “you want to do something about the weather, there is only one thing that we can do to affect climate or affect weather and that is to pray to Yahweh.” Faith certainly doesn’t have to make you stupid, but American Christianity does an excellent job of privileging willful ignorance that would be laughable in any non-faith-based context. Thank God I’m an atheist, given this is how leading Christian voices think and speak. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

Police Wound Two Women In Shooting Near Times Square — Caught in the line of fire by police officers, two women were shot near crowded Times Square in Manhattan last night. The bystanders were wounded as police struggled to deal with a man who was behaving erratically. Because guns make us all safer. Those two women should be grateful for the Second Amendment rights that ensure that anyone might be carrying a firearm.

Man seeking help after North Carolina car crash shot by police — An unarmed man who was shot dead after running toward police officers in Charlotte, North Carolina, may have been just trying to get help after crashing his car, police said. Because guns make us all safer. He should be glad he gave his life for your Second Amendment rights. I’m sure every single one of the other 30,000 people killed by firearms every year feels the same way. I know I would be proud to die for your illusion of safety.

[links] Link salad coughs the night away

What kills cancer patients — It’s not what you think. But yes, this. One reason I’ve lived so long with Stage IV metastatic colon cancer is that these things have been done properly to, by, and for me.

Detaining my partner: a failed attempt at intimidation — The detention of [Glenn Greenwald’s] partner, David Miranda, by UK authorities will have the opposite effect of the one intended. The UK government fights back against the Edward Snpwdem reporting. In an abusive and illegal manner completely consistent with the original charges. (danjite.)

Business groups aren’t too happy about Tea Party mania they helped unleash — National Journal’s Jill Lawrence has a good piece in which she interviews some of the top officials at these organizations, and finds they are shocked and dismayed by what they have wrought. You bought those idiot Republicans in office fair and square, guys. Welcome to the world we all have to live with them because of that empowerment of the Dunning-Kruger effect via Ayn Rand.

Health Plan Cost for New Yorkers Set to Fall 50% — Obamacare is a real disaster, isn’t it? What’s this country coming too when people pay less for a better service from a conservative ideal that happened to be sponsored by a Democratic president? This is the very definition of creeping Socialism.

An Evangelical Intellectual Takes On Same-Sex Marriage, Grasps at Straw Men — Not sure what’s intellectual about this exercise in self-valorizing bigotry, but then the entire case against gay marriage is nothing but self-valorizing bigotry, so I shouldn’t be surprised. The idiocy starts with the declaration that marriage has been “always and everywhere” defined as between a man and a woman. Um, not in my Bible. Nor in Utah, that bastion of Mormon Proposition 8 bigotry. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

Siege by Taliban Strains Pakistani Girls’ Schools — This is what happens when you have religious law mixed with civil law. The American right with their obsessive meddling in education and women’s health is much, much closer to Sharia Law than any of their paranoid fantasies about secular liberals.

Satan was pro-choice, religious right claims — I’ve often felt that the people who most embody Satan’s values are the haters on the religious right. Ah, the conservative mind. Rational. Measured. Closed. Bugfuck. How does a sane human being come up with this crap?

Colorado Counties Consider Secession Over Gun Laws, Oil Regulations — I think “sore loser” is the term they’re looking for here. The sane portions of America are supposed to suck it up on guns, restricting women’s health and evolution denial because Democracy! But God forbid conservatives live with any liberal-progressive ideas. Like paid vacations, paid sick leave, universal education or any of that other pinko guff.

Britain plans world’s first go-ahead for ‘3-parent’ IVF babies — Britain is planning to become the first country in the world to offer controversial “three-parent” fertility treatments to families who want to avoid passing on incurable diseases to their children. This is something that’s really going to freak some people out. Which it really shouldn’t.

Ecuador Scraps Trade Pact Over U.S. Threats in Snowden Case — Ecuador’s Communications Secretary Fernando Alvarado, who called the trade preferences a “new instrument of blackmail,” said today the government is offering the U.S. $23 million, an amount similar to what the U.S. provides under ATPDEA, to provide human rights training to combat torture, illegal executions and attacks on peoples’ privacy. Most Americans have no idea what we look like to the rest of the world. (Via danjite.)